lurkers-guide/ftp/Guide/078.Conflicts-of-Interest

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   _Contents:_ [9]Overview - [10]Backplot - [11]Questions - [12]Analysis
   - [13]Notes - [14]JMS
   
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
Overview

     Garibaldi takes on a new job. The resistance's counter-propaganda
     broadcasts begin. Sheridan proposes a plan to protect the
     Non-Aligned Worlds from raiders. [15]Tim Choate as Zathras.
     [16]Denise Gentile as Lise Hampton. [17]Mark Schneider as Wade.
     [18]Charles Walker as Ben.
     
[19]P5 Rating: [20]8.04

Production number: 412
Original air week: May 5, 1997

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by David Eagle

     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
Plot Points

     * Wade and his group still consider Garibaldi expendable.
     * Lise Hampton, Garibaldi's ex-lover ([21]"A Voice in the
       Wilderness") divorced her first husband and eventually married one
       of the richest men on Mars, William Edgars. Among other things,
       Edgars is the owner of the largest medical research center on the
       planet.
     * Some medical researchers believe that one of the genes responsible
       for telepathy in humans has the potential to mutate into some form
       of communicable disease, lethal to other telepaths. There may be a
       cure, but there are those on Earth who'd rather the basis of the
       cure be destroyed to rid Earth of telepaths.
     * Sheridan has proposed to assign the Rangers to patrol the borders
       between the various parts of alien-controlled space, protecting
       civilian transports from the Drakh ([22]"Lines of Communication")
       and others.
     * The Centauri have had contact with the Drakh in the past, but long
       enough ago that nowadays they're considered little more than
       legends.
     * Zathras had nine brothers, all named Zathras but with slightly
       different intonations.
       
Unanswered Questions

     * What exactly was the substance Lise was picking up?
     * Were Wade and Lise and their contact telling the truth about the
       telepath virus, or was the substance something else entirely?
     * Who were the gunmen? Were they with Psi Corps, or were they rogue
       telepaths? What did they mean by the phrase, "To the future?" (See
       [23]Analysis)
     * Why didn't Garibaldi fire at the telepath?
     * Did Wade know about Garibaldi's past association with Lise? Was
       she part of the test, to see how emotional stress would affect his
       performance?
     * Does William Edgars' job offer conflict with whatever plans Wade
       and his cohorts have for Garibaldi, or is his employment just
       another part of the plan?
     * Why didn't Edgars show Garibaldi his face?
     * What was in the message Lise left for Garibaldi?
     * Why did she send it using her maiden name?
     * Did G'Kar and Londo take Sheridan up on his offer?
       
Analysis

     * If Garibaldi takes the job, will he be working close to William
       Edgars? That would imply he'll also have frequent contact with
       Lise, which likely wouldn't be easy for either of them.
     * His consideration of the job offer is at odds with the glimpse of
       his programming, if that's what it was, in [24]"The Illusion of
       Truth." In that flashback, Garibaldi recalled being drilled over
       and over with the idea that he worked for nobody but his captors.
       Of course, if Edgars is involved with his captors, that might not
       be inconsistent.
       It's also possible his captors _want_ to get him close to Edgars,
       and that by taking the job he'd in fact be following their
       implanted orders.
     * Edgars claimed to have checked up on Garibaldi. Checked up on him
       how? Garibaldi himself has said on more than one occasion that his
       past is checkered at best, and his history isn't too closely
       guarded a secret (for example, the Senator knew about him in
       ([25]"The Gathering.") Maybe Edgars was taking Garibaldi's
       performance as security chief on Babylon 5 into account, or maybe
       his "checking up" involved talking to whoever captured Garibaldi
       ([26]"Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?")
     * The Daffy Duck cartoon Garibaldi was watching (1953's [27]"Duck
       Amuck!") can be viewed as a metaphor for his situation; depending
       on what was done to him after his capture ([28]"Whatever Happened
       to Mr. Garibaldi?") he may well no longer be in control of his own
       fate, and is certainly being influenced by forces he can't detect.
     * If the researchers are correct and the human telepathy genes can
       indeed mutate into a lethal virus, what are the parameters? Likely
       it's something that's telepathically transmitted. For example, it
       might cause a telepath to broadcast noise on whatever medium
       telepaths use to read thoughts. Telepathic interference can cause
       physical effects (Ben Zayn doubling over in [29]"Eyes," or Lyta's
       bloodied eyes in [30]"Walkabout") so it's not inconceivable that
       telepathic broadcasts of the right type could kill someone attuned
       to them.
     * Which begs the question, was this some kind of genetic timebomb
       intentionally implanted by the Vorlons when they modified humans
       to give them telepathic ability ([31]"Z'ha'dum?") Since the
       Vorlons, according to Morden, created human telepaths to use as
       weapons against the Shadows, perhaps the Vorlons also put a time
       limit on human telepathy so it wouldn't remain once the upcoming
       conflict with the Shadows was resolved.
       That would put a different spin on the disappearance of Narn
       telepaths ([32]"Ship of Tears.") The Book of G'Quan was probably
       correct about the Shadows killing most of the Narn telepaths. But
       maybe the reason the gene never resurfaced in the Narn population
       wasn't that it wasn't strong enough, as G'Kar supposed, but that
       it was only designed to last a few generations, and once the
       previous Shadow War was over, its time simply ran out. Of course,
       that assumes the Vorlons implanted telepathy into the Narn.
     * The threat isn't limited to Psi Corps; Ivanova's latent telepathy
       makes her vulnerable to any sort of disease that's transmitted
       between telepaths.
     * The fact that Wade was cooperating with Lise in her effort to get
       the vial into her husband's hands implies that he's at least
       somewhat sympathetic to telepaths, and perhaps to the Psi Corps.
       If he were one of the people who wanted to see all telepaths dead,
       presumably he'd've arranged for the vial to quietly vanish on its
       way to Lise. That ties into the apparent contradiction mentioned
       above between Garibaldi's programming ([33]"The Illusion of
       Truth") and his consideration of Edgars' job offer.
     * The telepathic assassins' closing phrase bears some similarity to
       a description of another telepath: Talia Winters in [34]"A Race
       Through Dark Places."
       _Lurker:_ You tipped the balance. I felt it when we were joined.
       You're more than you think you are.
       _Talia:_ Then what am I?
       _Lurker:_ The future.
     * The last time Garibaldi resigned, even briefly ([35]"In the Shadow
       of Z'ha'dum") he offered up his gun, his station ID, and his link.
       So did the security staff who resigned rather than join Nightwatch
       in [36]"Point of No Return." Why did Garibaldi keep them this
       time? Was he perhaps intending to return at some point?
     * Sheridan said of Garibaldi, "I don't like the company he's been
       keeping." How does Sheridan know what kind of company Garibaldi
       has been keeping? Is he having Garibaldi watched? And is he
       referring specifically to Wade's people? If so, what does Sheridan
       know about them?
     * Was there a reason Sheridan kept the lights in his office low when
       he met others there, or was it just a directorial touch?
     * Franklin commented to Ivanova that Mars was cold. But in
       [37]"Racing Mars," the tunnels where Franklin and Marcus were
       staying were noted as uncomfortably warm. Significant, or was
       Franklin simply referring to the surface, which is indeed cold?
       
Notes

     * Continuity glitch: Lise appears to have discovered a
       lightning-fast means of travel. At the end of the episode,
       Franklin and Ivanova walk past her while she's waiting to leave
       the station. Then Garibaldi is berated by Sheridan. He returns to
       his quarters and takes a shower. As soon as he's done, he gets a
       message from Edgars claiming that Lise has arrived home safely,
       even though it's been established ([38]"Messages from Earth") that
       travel between B5 and Earth's solar system takes days.
     * In [39]"Babylon Squared," Zathras complained, "Zathras warned, but
       nobody listens to poor Zathras." In this episode, that's doubly
       true: even _Zathras_ doesn't listen to Zathras.
     * G'Kar's artificial eye is now brown, rather than red like his
       natural one or blue like its initial color ([40]"Atonement.")
     * The onscreen logo displayed while Garibaldi spoke to William
       Edgars read "EI" (presumably short for "Edgars Industries" or some
       such.) Underneath, it read, "Mars - Phobos - Deimos." Phobos and
       Deimos are the two moons of Mars. Presumably this implies that
       there are people living or working on those moons, which in fact
       are little more than large asteroids and would thus be attractive
       for microgravity pharmaceutical research.
     * William Edgars' voice was played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
     * The telepaths' PPG blasts penetrated the floor of the air duct. In
       [41]"Grey 17 Is Missing," Garibaldi commented that PPGs are used
       rather than traditional guns because they don't penetrate hulls.
       Of course, an outer hull is likely quite a lot thicker than an air
       duct wall, and likely made of material with a higher melting
       temperature, so this most likely isn't a contradiction.
       
jms speaks

     * BTW, there's another example of a long single take coming up soon,
       on Epsilon 3, which is all I'll specify. I kinda wanted the scene
       to play itself out, without cutting, and to show just how
       amazingly capable some of our actors can be. We're talking here
       almost 4 minutes of footage, not one cut in the whole thing, very
       fast dialogue, and not a single muffed line, with the performances
       working wonderfully. You'll know it when you see it.
     * Our cast invariably comes in knowing full scenes, and can hit them
       without breaking or blowing a line. So we have a tendency at times
       to just let the master play out, keeping the intensity, which can
       sometimes be broken by too much cross-editing. (Note that the
       Zathras/Ivanova scene a few episodes back is *entirely* one shot,
       four minutes.)
     * Re: Daffy...I knew that cartoon, and had that definitely in mind
       when I wrote the script. Took some maneuvering to get WB to let us
       use that much of it.
     * Re: the cartoon...I'm a big WB cartoon fan, and knew that one very
       well, and there were two places where it would've fit with the
       story; the other one, which I almost used, was when you see two
       Daffy's arguing with each other.
       Re: the CGI...we've been fairly conventional with the CGI in
       recent seasons, we're trying to get a bit more adventurous.
       The Lise flashback material is all exactly as was filmed for
       "Babylon Squared." I think we used a few more pieces of the
       original footage, but it was all stet.
       _Why didn't we see what happened to Delenn, since she left in the
       previous episode?_
       Re: Delenn...these episodes happen close to one another in time,
       so you have to allow travel time for her to get to Minbar.
     * _Lise was the typical "woman in distress."_
       Re: Lise...well, everybody can't be a fighter; we've had guys and
       the occasional female character who isn't used to being shot at. I
       daresay I'm not terribly used to being shot at, and someone who's
       mainly a civilian would probably react about that same way. It's
       just a matter of showing that diversity realistically rather than
       saying, "Okay, let's have a helpless female now." Having every
       female (or male) hard-nosed and laughing off PPG bursts is as
       unrealistic as its opposite.
     * _Was there anything important in Lise's message?_
       No, nothing you need worry about.
     * _Why didn't Edgars show his face?_
       As we'll learn shortly, he doesn't want his face seen around.
       But we'll see him soon enough.
       (And the voice belongs to Efram Zimbalist Jr.)
     * _Did the PPG blasts melt through the air conditioning duct wall?_
       This is substantially correct. The PPG blast is extremely hot, and
       will melt through the plastic coating and the metal lining inside
       the tube. The entire energy of a PPG will not come through the
       tube (unless by some coincidence the exact same area is hit twice
       or three times), and I believe that this was propoerly portrayed
       in the sequence. Even if it isn't the entire energy blast, it will
       hurt like hell and de-mobilize an individual meat packet (person)
       for the bad guys to come get later.
       It did take a *very* long time to burn through the bulkhead door
       to allow them access to the hallway, and said door did mildly glow
       in the affected areas prior to melting through. The station hull
       is even more heat resistant.
       George Johnsen
       CoProducer, B5
       

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      [48]Last update: August 8, 1997

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